Gareth Pugh: Prince of Darkness

With fire flickering and blood running, medieval figures swept past in pure-black: it was a dramatic comeback to London from Paris for Gareth Pugh, and a way for fashion’s Prince of Darkness to celebrate 10 years in the industry.

The Bill Viola-style video in the background showed fire engulfing a
model who lopped off her hair with giant scissors and anointed herself
in blood with a Saint George’s Cross. The film was by Ruth Hogben, a
consistent collaborator with Pugh, and it set the storyline of noble
figures in a cult of Brittania, striding down the catwalk as if in a
female army.

Through the Gothic murk or gloom, the models
appeared as power women in clothes cut with the absolute
precision that makes the designer bankable. The coats and dresses
were artworks of cloth and straw. Make that 'straws', for the
designer explained backstage that black plastic drinking straws
were used as decorative surfaces on a shapely dress or
trimmed coat. I should have replied, for Gareth has a fine sense of
humour, that it was the perfect dress for travelling light on an
airplane.

The show was so precise, so perfectly constructed and
dramatically displayed, with the models like Boudicca's
warriors in mythical headdresses, that I felt real empathy with the
show - and sympathy for Pugh.

For all his compelling claims for strong women and the supreme
body mouldings of clothes made from exceptional sources, Pugh seems
destined to be under the dark shadow of Alexander McQueen. There we
were in the Victoria and Albert Museum - the very place where
the Savage Beauty exhibition devoted to the late designer
will be held next month.

Pugh's vision seems more positive and optimistic than
McQueen's, however. His cutting skills - even tailoring the
ubiquitous puffa coats - are impressive. And he should not be seen
in McQueen's shadow, even if both designers have fought on the
dark side.